Expand Your Gospel Vocabulary

Kevin was born in the 1960s. He grew up in a small town and attended church, Sunday school, and youth group. At college, life got busy, and Kevin drifted away from his faith. He experimented with the forbidden fruits of drinking, dating, and drugs. But deep down, these pleasures failed to satisfy. Worse, Kevin had pangs of guilt that he was doing the wrong thing.

One day on campus, a stranger presented Kevin with an evangelistic tract. Using words such as “laws” and “sin,” Kevin was told he was rebelling against God and living outside God’s rule, and that he needed to submit to God.

These words cut to Kevin’s heart. He remembered the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11–32). Kevin knew he needed to repent, return to his Christian upbringing, and receive Jesus as his Lord and Savior.

Now compare Kevin’s story with that of his coworker, Kylee. She was born in the 2000s, immersed in a world connected by smartphones and the global supply chain. Kylee regularly hears stories about climate change, police violence, and sexual abuse. She’s passionate about social causes—racism, poverty, and the environment.

Kylee finds little in common with Kevin’s Christianity. She stopped going to church when she turned 12. To Kylee, the whole Christian story is a privileged white man’s social construct, and any talk of “laws,” “God’s rule,” or “submission” is a thinly veiled attempt to oppress her with outdated views of morality.

Besides, none of it makes sense to Kylee. If she’s championing for justice, what “sin” is she committing? What “law” is she breaking? If anyone’s a “rebel,” it’s the Christians, trying to go against the flow. One day, history will judge Christians to be on the wrong side.

Kevin wishes that Kylee would adopt his Christian faith. But when he tries to explain the gospel to Kylee using words familiar to him, it turns Kylee away. Worse, it confirms to Kylee her worst fears about Christianity.

Words that once cut to Kevin’s heart didn’t cut to Kylee’s heart. Instead, they seem to have the opposite effect, hardening her heart. 

The Problem: What You Say Isn’t What They Hear

Have you ever talked with a Mormon? We use the same word—“God”—but with a different set of meanings. When Christians say “God,” they refer to the one true God. But when Mormons say “God,” they refer to an exalted human being.

Same word, two meanings. This is the problem of equivocation, or “What you say is not what they hear.”

This is the problem of explaining sin to those in the post-Christendom age. In the same way that a Christian and a Mormon hear different meanings for the word “God,” a Christian and a non-Christian hear two meanings for the word “sin.”

What do I mean by a post-Christendom age? In the post-Christendom age, Christianity is no longer the dominant story. Christianity is viewed as one option among many—and not often the most desirable one. Whereas those who grew up in a Christendom age (Kevin) typically had a set of background beliefs around moral absolutes, sin, and judgment and a positive view of the Christian church, a person brought up in a post-Christendom age (Kylee) doesn’t have the same set of background beliefs or a positive outlook on the church.

In a Christendom context, a “normal” gospel presentation (think the Four Spiritual Laws) helps people “connect the dots” of their background beliefs and show how they could have their sins forgiven and receive eternal life. But in a post-Christendom context, people’s “dots” are different (or even nonexistent), which means that while a typical gospel explanation is just as true as it was in a Christendom age, it doesn’t connect in the same way.

Where do we go from here? Do we need to abandon the old ways of talking about sin and salvation? Not at all. Rather, I suggest we need to be more biblical when we talk about sin, not less. Henri Blocher has observed that the Bible uses more than 50 Hebrew words in the Old Testament to describe “sin.” The New Testament adds several more, and the Bible’s evangelists—think John the Baptist and the apostles—invoke terms and use metaphors present in a culture as a way to connect the dots between the people’s sin and their need for grace and a Savior who can rescue and forgive them.

The Bible has a number of ways of describing sin and salvation, and four images in particular can help people like Kylee see Jesus’s truth, goodness, and beauty.

1. Shame and Honor

In a post-Christendom age, we’re moving away from a guilt-innocence culture into a shame-honor culture. We’ve become tribal. Unquestioned tribal loyalty is demanded. We virtue signal. Offenders are called out, canceled, and shamed.

We need to be more biblical when we talk about sin, not less.

In looking for ways to engage this different culture, we can learn from the apostles in Acts. When they preach to Jewish audiences, they appeal to a guilt-innocence model: “You’ve killed the Messiah, and now you need to repent” (see Acts 2:14–36). But when they preach to pagan audiences, they appeal to shame and honor: “There’s a good God who gives you good things, but you don’t worship him” (see 17:22–31).

I do something similar when I communicate the gospel in high school settings. If I begin, “You’ve broken the Ten Commandments . . . you’re a sinner . . . you need to repent,” I can feel the eye rolls. They think I’m imposing an oppressive tool of power on them.

Instead, I say there’s a good God who loves them, but we fail to honor this God. We enjoy the gifts without regard for the Giver. We instead need to worship this God. In return, God will take away our shame, lift us up, and honor us.

My audience may not agree that there’s a good God who loves them. But they can see why, if there’s such a God, they need to honor him. This is entirely consistent with their values.

They can also see how they have the problem of shame in their life. I can further articulate this by saying,

We’re not the people we say we are. We’re not the people we want to be. We’re not the people we need to be. We let ourselves down. We let others down. And deep down, we’ve let down God.

Within this framework, I can explain salvation as God washing away our shame. God restores us. God lifts us up and honors us. In this culture, I believe that the priestly blessing of Numbers 6:24–26—with its promise of “face” and “peace”—is highly attractive.

2. Brokenness

The term “broken” is contentious in Christian circles because it can soften the vertical component of sin. But at the same time, it has traction with our culture. It identifies sin’s horizontal and internal manifestations, where creation groans under our sin. It also describes our “iniquity”—our bent, twisted, sinful nature. The term “brokenness” can give us an entry point into our culture’s storyline.

If we’re still worried that “brokenness” doesn’t adequately cover the full breadth of sinfulness, we can throw the term into a cluster of other descriptors. For example, we can say, “We have guilt, shame, pain, brokenness, hurt, and regret.”

Kylee will agree her world is broken. There’s violence, poverty, and injustice. Kylee might also see herself as broken. There’s a high level of stress, anxiety, and depression in our Western world, despite our abundant material resources. Chances are that Kylee herself suffers internally from these.

So how best to explain this brokenness? I love to quote Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: “The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart—and through all human hearts.”

It’s one thing to diagnose the world as “broken.” But how can we solve this problem? We can solve it only when we realize we’re the problem. A society is only the sum of its parts. And we’re the parts that make up society. Evil begins inside each and every one of us. Society is broken because we’re broken.

The solution is to humble ourselves and confess we’re the problem. But we cannot fix this brokenness ourselves. We need a new heart. This is something only God can do. Here, we can appeal to Isaiah 61, where God’s Servant brings justice and restoration. We can appeal to Jesus, who comes as the “doctor” to the “sick” (Mark 2:17, NIV). But we have to see that the “sickness” begins in our hearts.

3. Self-Righteousness and Falling Short

In his parables, Jesus has a way of helping the Kevins and Kylees of the world feel seen. For instance, if Kevin identifies with the younger son (Luke 15) and the tax collector (Luke 18) in Jesus’s parables, then Kylee is the older son and the Pharisee in these same parables.

These parables can be disarming for someone like Kylee. For example, when I speak to college students, I say, “Do you know what ‘sin’ is for Jesus? According to Jesus, sin is that attitude you have when you turn off your lights for Earth Hour but you see that your neighbor doesn’t. Or sin is that feeling of self-righteousness when you have an eco–shopping bag, but the person next to you uses a plastic bag.”

The very things of which Kylee is proud expose her as sinful to Jesus. How? According to Jesus, Kylee’s sin isn’t that she has broken a law but that she “lifts herself up” (in self-righteousness). In the same way that the older son weaponizes his good acts against his father (Luke 15:29) and the Pharisee parades his good acts before God (18:11–12), Kylee lifts up her good actions.

The very things of which Kylee is proud expose her as sinful to Jesus.

But the problem is that Kylee also “falls short” of where she needs to be. She’ll never be good enough for her tribe. She’s only one badly worded social media post away from being canceled. Deep down, she also knows she’ll never be good enough for herself. What about that time she forgot her eco–shopping bag and used a plastic bag? She can never do enough. Why does she only turn off her lights for Earth Hour and not every day?

The solution is that Kylee must humble herself, stop lifting herself up, and let God lift her up (v. 14). She needs to stop weaponizing her good acts against those who don’t live up to her standards. Instead, she needs to “come home,” surrender her heart to God, and be loved by God—like the younger prodigal son does. She needs to let her good actions come out of being loved and recognized by the Father, rather than serving as a cry for love and recognition.

4. Dying and Being Out-of-Jesus

The New Testament describes salvation as both “Christ for us” and “Christ in us.” For example, Christ dies for us in our place as our federal representative (2 Cor. 5:14–15). This is the forensic nature of salvation. But at the same time, we’re also saved in Christ. We died and rose in Christ to a new life (v. 17). This is the realist nature of our salvation.

Correspondingly, there’s also a double aspect to our sin. We’re guilty of transgression. That’s why Christ dies for us in our place. But we’re also corrupted. Bent. Twisted. Falling short. That’s why we need to be in Christ and receive a new nature. This double aspect gives us a fuller picture of our sin and salvation.

The “Christ for us” aspect of sin and salvation makes sense to Kevin. But we can also explore the “in Christ” aspect with Kylee.

When I speak to non-Christians in secular settings, the “in Jesus” language is disarming to my audience. They’re not used to this category for explaining sin and salvation. But intuitively, it makes sense to them.

For example, I can explain that it’s dangerous to not be joined to Jesus. Jesus says that if we don’t remain in him, we eventually die (John 15:1–8). This sounds harsh, but it’s the way the natural world works. If a branch is cut off from a vine, it naturally dies. So it makes sense that if we’re cut off from our Creator, we also will die.

But it’s more than this. If we choose identity, success, and security apart from Jesus, we’ll wither away and die. There are so many real-life examples that our audience knows it to be true. Instead, we should join Team Jesus. Be in Jesus. Find our identity in Jesus. Ask Jesus to fill us with his Spirit. Then, rather than wither and die, we’ll receive “eternal life.” A full, fulfilled life in Jesus.

Wider Range

In the age of Christendom, we chiefly explained sin and salvation in terms of guilt and innocence, transgression and forgiveness, judgment and Christ dying for us. All this makes sense to someone like Kevin.

If we choose identity, success, and security apart from Jesus, we’ll wither away and die.

But in post-Christendom, while these same ideas are just as true, they seem less persuasive. Instead of abandoning these ways of talking about salvation, we should be free to explore the wider range of biblical metaphors and weave them into our conversations. We can explore metaphors such as shame and honor, brokenness and restoration, lifting ourselves up and humbling ourselves, falling short and being lifted up, and dying and being in Christ. If we do this, we follow in the footsteps of the Bible’s evangelists—and Jesus himself—in communicating sin to various audiences.